<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"\"&lt;h2&gt;Throwback Thursday: Cloudbreak Super Swell During The 2012 Volcom Fiji Pro&lt;\\/h2&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;A look back at one of the biggest swells of 2012&amp;#8230;&lt;\\/em&gt;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;June 8, 2012: Lightning Strikes At The Volcom Fiji Pro&lt;\\/strong&gt;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;We should have known it was going to be a historic day of surfing when Tavarua Resort was struck by a bolt of lightning this morning. Kaiborg and a few of the Volcom guys were busy setting up a pop-up tent when a flash went off just off the beach. It was followed by the loudest explosion that scared the shit out of everyone on the island. \\u201cThe flash went off right here,\\u201d said Kai as he motioned to the beach. \\u201cThen the explosion went off and I freaked out. My balls almost came out of my mouth, brah.\\u201d You know it\\u2019s serious when a 6\\u20192\\u201d 245lb. jiu-jitsu champ is scared shitless.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;And that was just the beginning.&lt;\\/em&gt;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;As crew made their way out to Cloudbreak, reports of clean up sets clearing the lineup spread like wildfire. Kelly Slater was one of the guys out there early and came in after that, followed by Dave Wassel and his broken-half-surfboard. \\u201cI got annihilated like a drunk girl at prom,\\u201d said the ever-colorful Volcom Fiji Pro commentator. Wassel however, would go on to emerge from one of the biggest barrels of the day later in the afternoon.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;With the raging\\u2014and still building\\u2014swell, contest officials were faced with some major decisions: run the event in huge, treacherous surf, or opt for 6-8 foot Restaurants. After a lot of back and forth banter and questions about how to pull it off, the team eventually decided to run the remaining two heats of round two. The World Tour surfers on the boat were rattled, and rightfully so. \\u201cSend out the guinea pigs,\\u201d copped Kai Otton from the 88-foot luxury yacht that serves as contest headquarters. A tall and lanky goofyfoot who thrives in big, barreling waves, Kai was the standout of the two heats that were run before the contest was called off.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;figure id=\\\"attachment_1000160961\\\" style=\\\"width: 640px\\\" class=\\\"wp-caption aligncenter\\\"&gt;&lt;img class=\\\"size-full wp-image-1000160961\\\" title=\\\"Big Cloudbreak \\\" src=\\\"http:\\/\\/www.grindtv.com\\/wp-content\\/uploads\\/2013\\/05\\/Cloudbreak-TBT.jpg\\\" alt=\\\"Big Cloudbreak \\\" width=\\\"640\\\" height=\\\"360\\\" \\/&gt;&lt;figcaption class=\\\"wp-caption-text\\\"&gt;Cloudbreak on June 8, 2012. Photo: Brian Bielmann&lt;\\/figcaption&gt;&lt;\\/figure&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;\\u201cI felt like I was surfing Sunset Beach out there\\u201d said Bede Durbidge after surviving the first heat of the day. \\u201cIt was that f\\u2014ked,\\u201d quipped his opponent Adam Melling after getting mercilessly pounded while caught inside. \\u201cYou can\\u2019t see it from here (the media boat in the channel) but there\\u2019s a chop in the face like this big,\\u201d said Bede as held his hand at his knee. \\u201cI reckon my heart rate never dropped below 120. I thought we were gonna get caught inside by a clean up set the whole time!\\u201d he added.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Raoni Monteiro copped the worst beating of the morning after pulling into the grinding inside section on a solid ten-footer. \\u201cThat was a nugget, huh?\\u201d he asked as he grimaced in pain with a knee injury.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;After those two heats, it was time for a freesurf session along the lines of the now famous &amp;#8220;Code Red\\u201d session at Teahupo\\u2018o last August during the Billabong Pro Tahiti. In fact, the whole day had the same energy and adrenaline as the historic tow session\\u2014except guys were paddling into the bombs as opposed to being whipped in by a PWC.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;And while some anonymous idiots on Twitter can call the World Tour surfers pussies for not throwing themselves over the ledge, the fact is that a lot of them were out there; Parko, Fanning, John John, Yadin Nicol, Ace Buchan, Pat Gudauskas, CJ and Damien Hobgood, and Mitch Coleborn joined the gnarliest big wave riders in the world in what can only be called a historical day of surfing.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;\\u201cBarriers were beyond broken, I\\u2019m pretty sure everyone got the wave of their life out there today. That\\u2019s a heavy quote but I\\u2019m sure it went down. Some of the unridden ones were beyond heavy!\\u201d said a beaming Dane Gudauskas after making it back to Tavarua at the end of the day.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;It wasn\\u2019t all fun and games though and the Water Patrol guys were lifesavers today. \\u201cGuys were coming up from wipeouts and had no idea where they were or what was going on,\\u201d recalled Kaiborg. \\u201cI just told them \\u2018You\\u2019ll see. You\\u2019ll see\\u2026\\u2019 It was the day of all days.\\u201d&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;As I write this it\\u2019s getting dark and everyone\\u2019s standing around recounting the day with eyes bulging out of their skulls. Beers are being cracked, photographers are downloading what\\u2019s sure to be covers and two-page spreads galore, and everyone\\u2019s thanking their lucky stars that there were no serious injuries. Big thanks to Volcom for keeping the live feed up while all the action was going down, and big shakas to Uncle Toad\\u2019s Media Group who literally risked life and limb to broadcast the action&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The 2013 Volcom Fiji Pro kicks off June 2, let\\u2019s hope for more supersized Cloudbreak! Click through to the next page for a bunch of videos from the day&amp;#8230;&lt;\\/strong&gt;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n\""^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.grindtv.com/surf/tbt-cloudbreak-super-swell-during-the-2012-volcom-fiji-pro/?show=gallery&pid=63917>